Low Sulpher Blues

Hubby is in Illinois. He dropped off the Hawaiian Bread load at the Walmart distribution center and then returned a few hours later to pick up his next load. I think he said he's delivering in PA and TX.

Meanwhile he's running low on fuel and he's in the Midwest. For some reason those two things are not a good combination. The fuel stop the company sent him to didn't have ultra low sulpher fuel. Neither did a couple of other places he tried. So once again he's been on the phone trying to locate someplace to buy fuel. Apparently there's a place about 80 miles away, hopefully he'll make it before he runs out.

Broken Laptop

Hubby is not happy right now! He cracked the screen on his laptop so there will be no postings from him for a while. It will probably be a while before we can get it fixed. We don't really have any money set aside for it and at this point we have to wait until the next time he gets home....

So we're back to me spreading the news. I'll see if I can interview him and pass along the fun.

Today he delivered in Illinois. He was pretty happy that he made it right to the delivery because he couldn't use his mapping software on his laptop....grrr....

On a good note, he got a fuel bonus last week and is hoping to get his safety bonus soon. Maybe we'll be able to set some of it aside for the "laptop repair fund."

All's Well

Hubby was supposed to be home October 10th, but he was late. He was really bummed. He had planned to take our son to the Miramar Air Show, but he didn't make it home in time. If either of us had posted back then, we wouldn't have been too happy. Now we are grateful.

Hubby was home when the fires broke out and currently he's still home. While the fire is only a few miles away, the winds have died down and it looks like we are out of danger. SRT was really good about letting him stay home a couple of extra days... of course I'm not sure that he could've left on Monday, even if he wanted to. Hwy 8 was closed to high profile vehicles, Hwy 15 was closed because of the fire and the fire was working it's way towards I-5, not to mention that we are on the edge of the evacuation zone.

It can be extremely frustrating when you try to plan something and try to get your husband home on time to be there with the family, but over and over again we find hidden blessings when he gets home late. After how bad the Cedar Fire was in this area, I know he would have been a basket case if had been out on the road worrying about us. It was very comforting to have him here at home.

Hopefully things will settle down here soon and he'll be back on the road enjoying his adventures.

- The Wife

And just like that, things change... hubby just walked up to tell me he is heading out. He is picking up in Torrance and heading out to Illinois. I know he has to go, but it's still hard to say goodbye.

Headin' Home (I Hope)

Since Dallas, I've run up to Kentucky and Ohio, and am currently in Arkansas awaiting my delivery appointment tomorrow morning. I don't have a pre-plan for the next load yet, which is rare. Ususally I know when and where my next load is a day or two before I deliver the current one. But, since I have home time scheduled, it limits the available loads down to the few that just happen to be going in the same direction as the one I would like to be going in.

The fact I don't have a load plan for tomorrow yet makes me just a bit nervous. This has happened a time or two before. There just aren't any loads going the way you want to go, so you sit there for three or four days. Meanwhile, all the plans you have made to be certain places at certain times just pass by and there's nothing you can do about it. Frustrating to say the least.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'll wake up tomorrow and find that perfect run that will head me home. I've been out seven weeks and I really don't want to make it eight. Not this time anyway.

It's Like I Never Left

I've been all over the lower half of the east coast, except Florida, and back to the terminal about three times. But, My luck finally ran out and I'm Back in Texas. Given the proximity of our terminal, it's a 50/50 shot that you'll be going into texas.

Ironically I started and ended up at the same place this past week. Last time I was in the yard, I picked up a load from Firestone Roofing Products, that went to South Carolina. Two days ago I picked up a load out of Virginia that went right back to Firestone.

I picked up from a place that turns coal into coal dust. There was a small black dog there who I'm not sure if he was already black, or if he got that way from all the coal dust in the air sticking to his fur.

I got out of my truck to make sure I was centered in the loading dock and just about fell over him so, being the softie that I am, of course I had to play with him. Not the brightest dog though. I picked up a scrap piece of wood and I could just tell he wanted me to throw it. Ok. I throw it and the dog goes and brings it back right? Not!
No he would go and get it all right but, then he would take off with it. Where he went I don't know but, after about an hour of this I couldn't find anymore wood to throw. I told him I would be happy to keep on playing our little game if he would simply go and get one of the pieces he had stashed and put it back into play.

I went and sat down to wait out the remainder of the loading process and he comes over and wants to be pet now. So, I start to pet him and ew! He's sticky! I look down at my hands and they too are now covered in this black, sticky goo. Glad I keep handy wipes on the truck.

I didn't notice this till the next day but the backside of the shorts I was wearing that night were now black too.

Since they didn't have anything planned for me after dropping of the dreaded black goo I headed to our terminal only about 40 miles away for a nice relaxing evening. Only once I got there They had other plans. Turns out another driver had run out of hours and couldn't finish his run into Dallas.

So here I am in Dallas again... It's like I never left!

Texas Again?

I know it's been a while since I had time to write. I've been on one tight run after another. I just don't have enough left in me at the end of the day to write, so I apologize to my regular readers for not updating very often.

The wife always says to just write where I'm at and where I'm going. What I'm hauling and stuff like that. But, I have a hard time not writing everything.

Well here goes everything. Since the last post I've taken a run up to Idaho. Dropped off there and immediately picked up another going to Florida. Didn't quite make it though. Ran out of hours 300 miles away from the receiver. Another driver took it the rest of the way.

So there I was in Georgia, out of hours and just about exhausted. When one of the load planners contacted me and asked how soon I could be at a shipper about 80 miles away. So much for getting some rest. As soon as the required 10 hour off duty period expired I was off (at two a.m.) to pick up the next one.

Which finds me here in Texas again. Like a moth to a flame. I seem to be drawn to Texas.

I hauled some pulverized clay material that's used to make paint to a paint factory in Temple Texas. So light and fine, a five gallon bucket of the stuff doesn't even weigh one pound. But, somehow they managed to cram 44,000 pounds of the stuff in my trailer.

The plant where they process the big chunks into this fine powder was an interesting place. everything was covered in this yellow dust. Including the workers. I wonder what the inside of their cars look like?

I delivered this morning without being pre-planned for the next load. That's the first time in a long time that has happened. So I don't know where or when I'm going next.

For the first time in weeks, I don't have another load waiting for me as soon as I'm done. That's ok with me. I could use a little time to recharge the batteries. They tend to get run down a little when you're running seven days a week for weeks at a time.

The New Daisy May

I delivered my load to Carrollton (Dallas), Tx the other day and was instructed to come to the yard to pick up a new load. Oh and while your here, go ahead and pick up your new truck. Your brand spankin' new truck. Woohoo

I loved the old Daisy May but, she was getting tired. Things were breaking or would just stop working on a pretty regular basis. It was getting to the point where I was spending more time in the shop than on the road.


In memory of a family friend who recently passed away, I decided to name the new truck Daisy May also. He kept rats as pets and named every single one Henry. When one would go off to rat heaven he would simply go out and acquire a new "Henry".

While I was transferring all my stuff from the old truck into the new truck dispatch called me and asked if I could take one of the new hires out to pick up an abandoned truck rather near one of my drops in Casa Grande, Az. I reluctantly said yes. I wasn't real sure if I wanted someone else driving my new baby or not.

I could of said no but, that would just make life difficult for dispatch. I could of said ok but, he's not driving. That would just make the trip take longer meaning I would have to have a passenger longer and I drive solo for reason. I like my space.

It turned out he had a lot of experience and knew what he was doing. We pretty much ran as a team so we weren't in each other's way a lot but, it is a pain trying to be quiet when you stop. Trying not to shut the door too hard, or take corners too hard. You can't play the radio too loud. You want the other driver to be well rested when it's his turn to drive. If he falls asleep because you kept him up all night long, he's wrecking your new truck. Not his.

We dropped off stop one of two last night and then headed over to find his truck.
The former driver wasn't exactly a clean freak or very concerned with basic maintenance. The truck wouldn't start because it had been sitting for a while and all the fuel drained out of the fuel filter and it had lost it's prime. Fortunatly I had all the proper tools to remedy this and we had it going in no time.

He headed off to the nearest truck stop with a shop to have at least three tires replaced and I'm off to deliver the other stop, SOLO. Just the way I like it. Then a quick jaunt over to Mesa, Az. to pick up a run going to Idaho.

What A Weekend

That was one long boring weekend. I had to spend the holiday weekend camped out in a truck stop because the business I was delivering to was closed for the whole three day holiday.

This all started the other day when I was dispatched out of Waterford, N.Y. The load I was sent to pick up was a hazmat load. Hazmat loads require at least two load lock bars and I had none. I lost all I had when I dropped a trailer in Orlando Fl. the week before. The trailer I picked up, of course, had none inside.

As I mentioned before I had been staying in a little Mom & Pop stop and their store was severely lacking in basic truck supplies. So, off to the nearest name brand truck stop over 40 miles away.

Well this little jaunt eventually led to my demise. The two hours I spent running in circles to pick up the load locks caused me to run out of hours before I could reach my destination just outside of Atlanta, Ga.

I called my dispatch to let them know I wasn't going to make it and to see if they could find another driver in the area who had a few more hours available than I did. After about two hours they sent a message back saying they couldn't find anyone so just get it there when I can. Little did I know that was going to be Tuesday.

Normally we get the phone numbers of both shipper and receiver in the dispatch info but, this receiver had just moved into a new building, and shipper did not have the receiver's new number when they booked the load with SRT.

I guess when the receiver ordered the product from the shipper, nobody thought to get to get their number. You know, in case there's a problem with their order or something like that.

Don't ask how I knew but, when I saw the Hollywood phone number (555-55...) in the dispatch, I just knew it was going to hurt me.

The next morning (Saturday) I drove the remaining two hours to the receiver only to find the place locked up tighter than a drum. Not one single car in the lot. Not one single light on in the building. I tried all the doors anyway. Yep. They remembered to lock every single one.

An overwhelming dread came over me. If they're not open on Saturday, they'll probably not be open on Sunday. If they're not open Saturday or Sunday, than they're probably the type of company that gives all their employees Labor Day off too.

So the Truck is really, really clean now. I finally got to deliver Tuesday morning, and off to pick up the next one.

I'll be heading to Dallas, Tx. as soon as the repair shop in this truck stop can take care of a sticky tandem pin. All trailers that have sliding axles have four locking pins that extend through two rails (one on either side) on the bottom of the trailer. If one pin is missing it puts too much stress on the other pin on that side and could cause it to sheer off leaving that side free floating. when one side is firmly locked in place and the other side is not, the free side can slide back and cause the trailer to start going side ways when you're still trying to go straight.
Never a good thing!

Don't Panic

It's been a while since I've posted here. Hubby keeps it updated a bit better now that he has consistent internet service and we've kind of settled into a routine at home....but.... I have something to share today.

Hubby and I tend to check in with each other a few times a day. I'll usually call him when I'm on my way to work and he usually calls me when I get off work. Most nights he'll call me before he goes to bed. I think the latter is just self-preservation. He's always in different time zones so I might call at 8pm here and wake him up at 11pm there. We also call each other randomly when the thought crosses our minds.

One day (ok maybe more than one day) I didn't call in the morning. I didn't call at lunch. When we finally connected hubby said I was in "trouble" because I didn't check in so he jokingly made up a new rule. I must call on my way to work. I must call at lunch and I must call when I get off work. I know it was a joke, but since I'm a smart @ss, I do it.

"Hi honey, just doing my mandatory check-in."

Well on Monday we talked around 10:30am.

At lunch I called for my "check-in." - No answer

After work I called for my "check-in" - No answer

Hmmmm... he's on a 34 hour restart, maybe he's sleeping.

After I got done working for my old boss a couple of hours later I called again - Lazy bum is still sleeping.

Next morning I called again - No answer

Ok, so now I'm worried. Not even Rick can sleep that long.

I called. And called. And called. We called from different numbers so the phone would ring differently. We left voicemails. We sent text messages. - No answer.

The phone was ringing so I knew it was getting service. Usually it will go straight to voicemail if he's out of service or if the phone is dead.

Finally I called dispatch and left a message with his dispatcher to ask him to call home.

1 hour later - no response.

I called dispatch again and left another message - no response.

Ok, so now I am beyond panicked!

What if he had a stroke or a heart-attack and he's laying in his truck. He's on a 34 hour restart so the company isn't going to be worried that he's not moving....hmmmm...

Finally I call dispatch again and this time I didn't ask for his dispatcher. I just relayed my sordid tale.

"Hi I'm Rick ____'s wife in truck number _____. I'm sorry to bother you, but I haven't been able to reach my husband. It's been almost 24 hours and he usually calls several times a day. Has he done his check call today?"

"Yes Ma'am. He checked in about an hour ago."

"Oh good, thank you for the peace of mind. Can you send him a message to call me, something must be wrong with his phone."

One minute later the phone rang and I burst into tears.

Something is wrong with his cell phone battery. Looks like a trip to the Sprint store is in our future. In the meantime, hubby better start following his own rules. My heart can't take it.

(A big thank you to SRT dispatch. They were very kind and helpful! By the way, his dispatcher wasn't ignoring me....we think she had the day off or something... Hubby was on someone else's board for the day.)

No Vermont This Time

I'm off on another run. Not to Vermont though. Instead I'll be heading south to Tennessee and then on to Georgia.

Due to the extreme distance of my last load and the relatively short time I had to get it there I used up all of my hours and had to sit it out for the last day and a half. No worries. I used the time productively. Did a little maintenance on the truck, a little cleaning and went for a lot of walks. Got to keep up with the wife you know.

There are no name brand truck stops for at least 40 miles in any direction, so I've been staying at this little Mom & Pop stop not too far from where I delivered the other day, which coincidentally is the same spot I'm picking up from tonight. I wonder if I'll be picking up some of the same product I just delivered?

The place I've been staying at the last couple of days didn't have a lot to choose from in the food and beverage categories but, what it lacked in basic amenities, it made up for in character.

I don't know when it was built, and neither does anyone who works here, but I'm guessing it was in the early 1900's. Judging by the floor to ceiling glass walls that encircle the building. It's hard to imagine it in this day and age but, there was a time when the only light you had to work by is what was coming in through the window.





........................Sunset shining through building....................

There was also a nice park right next to the truck stop I discovered on one of my many walks.


....................The Hudson River along side park.......................


.........View from pier towards park. Truckstop is to the left..........

Coast To Coast

Well I'm back at the old grind. Pulled out of SD a few days ago on my way to Waterford NY. Just north of Albany. Not a bad run to start with!

They routed me along my favorite route. I-70 through the canyons and mountains of Utah and Colorado. It's a bit hillier than I'd like but, you cant beat the views.

The wife has asked me a few times which state I like driving through the most and it's always a toss up between Utah and Colorado. It doesn't matter how many time I go through there, I'm always amazed. (sorry no pic's... Blogger refusing to upload them)

I Deliver early Monday morning and I'll be a stones throw away from Vermont. One of the four states I've yet to visit. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed they'll have a pick up in Vermont waiting for me when I'm empty.

Cruise Control

I finally made it off the east coast and am currently sitting in our Long Beach drop yard awaiting delivery early tomorrow morning.

The load I have delivers to a cruise ship on the San Pedro, Ca docks extremely early in the morning and then I'll be heading home for a couple of weeks of much needed rest.

Oh. And I can't forget the honey do's... Come to think of it... I may actually get more rest when I'm working.

See you in a couple weeks.

A Week In Review

This Past week started out well but, went a little south after that. And I don't mean south as in direction. I've had only two loads this week and not for lack of freight, but rather, a slight tear in the inside wall of the trailer caused what should have been a two day run turn into a four day run.

The first load went off without a hitch. Pick up at shipper. Deliver to receiver. No problem. The second load however. I arrive at shipper, back into assigned dock and sit for three hours. The whole time wondering what is taking so long. I felt the dock plate go into the trailer only a few minutes after I got in the dock but, no forklift.

I was going over all the possible scenarios in my head: Did I arrive at break time, are they just drastically understaffed... Unbeknownst to me, The shipper had rejected my trailer and was on the phone with my company trying to figure out what to do next. Would have been nice if somebody had let me in on this little secret.

The trailer was rejected because an earlier forklift impact had bowed the side wall of the trailer out so far it caused the kick plate to separate and bend inward toward where the freight would be.

With my trailer being just wide enough to accommodate two pallets side by side, this particular shipper was not willing to risk their product being damaged during loading or shipment.

It's Friday. 4:30 in the afternoon. The chance of finding an open trailer repair shop... Nil. But I call my company shop anyway. Their advise. Take it to a Truckstop over 90 miles away and see if they can get it patched up enough to get by for now and they'll fix it proper next time it comes by the terminal. I told them this would probably just be a huge waste of time. This was bigger than truckstop shop damage but, they tell me to go anyway.

I drive up to the truckstop, find a mechanic and tell him what my problem is. Sight unseen, they're not sure if they can fix it or not, so two of them follow me out to my trailer. I open the back and they peered in. Instantly they both start laughing. I don't know if it was at me or that the damage was just so funny looking. They said it wasn't anything they could fix and I would have to go to a specialty trailer shop to get that kind of damage repaired.

This is the part I love. The part where I get to call my shop and say told ya so. Well past 6:30 at night nothing in the way of trailer shops is still open so they tell me to find a spot for the night and we'll try this again tomorrow.

I awoke the next morning to my cellphone ringing. It was my shop saying they had found a place that could fix the trailer. This could have waited til after 7:00 couldn't it?

A short drive and I was at the shop. The mechanic immediately climbed in and went to work. But after more than two hours, he came to the conclusion that this was bigger than he thought and he wasn't able to fix this kind of damage. He just didn't have the proper tools and such.



He presented me with two options. there was a shop a short distance away that could probably do the job, or... there is this guy he knows (there's always a guy) that does really good work and he could come there and do the work in their yard. Well I'm not the decision maker here so I passed this information along to my shop, sat back and waited for them to tell me what they wanted to do.

About an hour later I hear all this banging coming from my trailer. I go back to see what all the ruckus is. Apparently my shop decided to go with the mobile mechanic. Thanks for never calling me back. What is this keep the driver in the dark week?

Mobile Mechanic (background) and helper

Well apparently "this guy" had all the right tools. In no time they had the wall straightened, the gap closed, all the rough edges ground down and they even sealed the joint with a nice layer of caulk.

In fact they did such a nice job that if you didn't know where to look, you wouldn't be able to tell there ever was any damage.

The next day I drove the 90 miles back to the same shipper and this this time, thankfuly, passed inspection.

Mobile mechanic's truck backed up to mine for easy access to their tools

Planes, Trains and Automobiles... err Trucks

Mechanical woes almost caused me to be late today. I received this load the other day but, because i used up all my available hours on the two previous runs I had to sit on it for a day and a half before I could move. No problem. My company contacted the shipper and receiver and a new appointment was set. One that I could easily make.

That is until I went to start my truck yesterday and nothing happened. Don't know why but, this is the third time in the past two months that this has happened. The mechanics can't figure it out either. Must be one of those intermittent problems that comes and goes and just never seems to happen when they're poking around with all their electrical testers and such.

It took five hours to get the problem resolved. And now what was an easy run just turned into a pain in the backside run.

I made it but, just barely. I had use the split sleeper berth option to make it on time but, I made it. My 96% on time rate is safe.

I headed off to the nearest mom and pop truck stop about two miles away to complete the rest of the required sleeper berth time and 15 minutes after I served out the remaining time, I received another run. No rest for the weary...

Out Of Hours & Daisy May Gets A Bruise

Wow! It's been a while since I had a Chance to write. I was home for a few days and ever since I came back out I've been running 13 - 14 hours a day. It's all I can do to get out of the hot seat and fall into the bunk at the end of the day. Not that I'm complaining. I rather like when they keep me moving like that. Makes for a good payday. But too many of those days in a row gets to be a bit much at times. I'm not the spring chicken I used to be.

I ran from California to Georgia in only three and a half days, then up to Indiana, over to Illinois and finally back to Indiana. Which is where I'll be for a couple of days. I've already used up all my available hours and have to sit until they reset on Friday morning.

Kinda boring to have to sit around all day but, I'll finally get that much needed rest that has been eluding me for the past few days.






The other day Daisy May got backed into and she is not at all happy about it. Just some minor damage but, she's still upset. We were sitting in a rest area just a few miles into Arizona when pickup truck towing a U-haul trailer tried and failed at backing up.

I was just getting out of the driver's seat to head into the back for the night when the force of the impact knocked me off ballance, and back into the seat I went. I heard a loud crunching noise and thought to myself, well that can't be good.

The other driver pulled up so I could climb out and inspect the damage. We did the obliglatory exchange of insurance info and all that fun stuff, then, all the fun being over, I finally got to go to bed.

I've been running so hard this past week I haven't had time to get the step replaced. So I'll just have to be careful climbing in and out until I can.

New York, New York?

Hubby should be on his way to the receiver this morning. I just popped in to say New York? Hubby is preplanned on a trip to New York. There's no way that San Diego is on his way to the big apple and the big apple is DEFINATELY not on his way to San Diego.

Any other day and I'd say "cha ching," that's a great run....

Today, I'd like to hear that he has a little hop, skip and a jump down to say...Long Beach or Otay Mesa. I'm not picky. It just needs to head south.

Stay tuned... I'm sure there's an explanation....

Edited to add:
He's on his way to Long Beach!

Down In Flames

Up two hours before the sun this morning. Not a bad drive into the receiver. I was practically the only thing on the road for a while. I got more and more company as I got closer to Sacramento, but never really hit any traffic which was my main concern when I went to bed last night.

Unloading was a little brutal. Had to unload myself and it was hot! Usually we never touch the product. My company is of the belief that paying lumpers is less costly than paying worker's comp claims. Plus the loss of a driver for an undetermined amount of time. Unfortunately lumpers were unavailable at this stop.

In 13 months of driving, this is only the second time I've had to unload my trailer and the first time was by choice. Rather than wait nine hours til the lumpers started for the day, I unloaded my own trailer and got out of there in two.

After a real good work out I headed over to stop two. It doesn't deliver til tomorrow, but you never know Sometimes they'll take you a day early.

I could of stayed up in Sacramento and easily covered the distance to San Jose in the morning, but I want to go home, and if there's a twinkle of a chance they'll unload me today, I had to at least try.

I checked in at receiving only to be told what I already knew. It doesn't deliver until tomorrow. But... the person who has the appointment for today isn't here yet.
OK. I'm listening. They said they would wait two hours and if he wasn't here by then, they would take me instead.

Wouldn't you know it... 15 minutes before I get to back into the dock and start the unloading process, guess who shows up. Grrr.

I was already putting my seatbelt on when the guy from receiving came out to give me the bad news. Sorry, but you'll have to come back tomorrow. Shot down in flames...

Well at least it won't be too hard to find tomorrow. But it does now rule out the possibility of gettin home tomorrow. Maybe Saturday.

Homeward Bound

I rolled into California this morning. I could smell home. Not really smell home, but the sage brush and ocotillo plants. That familiar smell of southern California. Different parts of the country have their own smells. For instance, the northwest has a piney, ceder smell, the east smells like industry and Texas has a sulphur smell from all the oil wells and refineries.

It's funny. Arizona has the same basic plant and shrub make up as California. Especially western Arizona, but I didn't smell the sage brush until I crossed that state line. I guess the temperature reached that magic degree where the plants start to sweat out their oils at just the same time I crossed over the Colorado river.

I drop the first half of this two drop load tomorrow in Sacramento. Then San Jose on Friday. Maybe then the wife can stop singing to me everytime I call. Or at least change the words to "Do you know the way to San Diego?"

Hopefully my dispatcher has found something heading south from there so I can go home after stop two. Nothing more frustrating than being so close, but out of range to just deadhead home.

Well it's off to bed for me. I have to get up at o-dark-thirty to complete the remaining miles and deliver on time tomorrow. Goodnight.

Do you know the way to San Jose?

All hubby had to do was tell me that one of his drops is near San Jose and I can't keep that song out of my head. Do you know the way to San Jose?....(I'm sure there are more words, but since the song is probably almost as old as I am, those are the only words I know.) Of course since it's stuck in my head, I feel compelled to sing it to him everytime he calls home. I'm surprised he's still calls me.

I rarely log on to the SRT website to see where he is. I usually just ask him when he calls. But when he's on his way home, I check it quite frequently. Usually it goes something like this...

Texas
Texas
Texas (dang is he ever going to leave Texas?)
New Mexico, Arizona, California - boom, boom, boom.
Of course once he hits California then it's
California
California
California...

He might be in the Golden State, but he's still far from home.

Speaking of home... Hubby doesn't really complain TOO much about little delays on the road. For the most part he knows that it's just the way the industry works. There's a lot of hurry up and wait. But he has little to no patience when he's on his way home! I think it just drives him crazy to be so close to home and then have to deal with California traffic, delays at receivers and the waiting for the magic beep that means he can head home.

Knowing that, I'm kind of feeling guilty. I goofed. I forgot Josh was leaving for camp on Monday when hubby and I were going over the calendar and scheduling home time. Best case scenario, hubby will be home on Saturday. That doesn't give them much time together. And I don't even want to think about worst case scenario! I'm not thinking they would particularly enjoy waving at each other as one heads south on I-5 and the other one heads north.

Weather Woes

I didn't get very far today before the weather shut me down. A large thunderstorm was brewing over New Mexico and I was getting blown all over the road. Rather than tempt fate I decided to throw in the towel.

I pulled into a truckstop in Albuquerque only to find every other truck on the road had exactly the same idea. As I drove up and down the rows slowly working my way back and forth I was beginning to lose hope of finding a space. When there on the very back row, the very last last space, I found my spot. It was a bugger to get into, but I made look like I knew what I was doing.

Part of the reason for the severe lack of parking at this particular truckstop is they're installing IdleAire and several spaces are blocked off to accommodate the construction crews and all their equipment.

IdleAire is a unit that mounts in the passenger window of the truck much like an air conditioner mounts in a window of a house, and eliminates the need for drivers to idle their trucks to keep cool or warm. It also has Internet access, satellite t.v. and radio among other features.

I like to use it when I can find it, but with only slightly over 100 truckstops having it installed and running, it's pretty few and far between locations. And right now it exists mostly in the southern and eastern states. So if you're up north or out west you're pretty much out of luck.

More and more locations are popping up all the time, but it's a slow process. Most truckstop owners are reluctant to install it because of the loss of business during construction, the loss of about 10% of their parking spaces and the general overall lack of trust that this isn't just a passing technology that will be outdated before it ever gets off the ground. With more and more trucking companies installing APU's (Auxiliary Power Unit) on their fleets, the need for Idleaire just wont be there in a few years.

Well No sooner than I pull over and start typing the weather breaks. I'm staying put though. It will be dark soon and if I thought I had a hard time finding a parking space the first time, it's even worse when that sun goes down. Besides parking in the dark is a pain. Trucks or rather the trailers dont have back up lights on them and truckstop lighting isn't always the greatest.

Here's some links if you want to know more about APU's or IdleAire

Everything Is Bigger In Texas & #19

I pulled out of the terminal on Monday night thinking I wouldn't have to go through Texas any time soon. I was heading east to South Carolina anticipating where I would go from there. Up to the northeast? Down to Florida? I dropped off my load of roofing rubber, the kind they use for flat top commercial buildings, on Wednesday and already had a load going back to Little Rock, Arkansas on my Qual Comm before I finished unloading. This made me worried. I was going back into the Bermuda Triangle again.

I wasn't too worried though. They fixed everything didn't they? Still I had that nagging doubt. Would I get sucked in again and be stuck for three or four more days?

I drove up to Greer, SC to pick up my load and started making my way toward Little Rock.

I have an awesome dispatcher who is always looking two or three moves ahead, and while I was still two days out from my destination, she sent me a load going from Arkansas to Tennessee. The opposite direction of the Bermuda triangle.

I've been playing catch up all week. Since my truck was in the shop so long, it put me about 10 hours behind on all my pick ups and deliveries this week. Try as I may, I just wasn't able to gain any ground. There are so many variables you have no control over; weather, traffic, accidents, shippers and receivers not being ready when you arrive. I had them all and them some.

Unfortunately I wasn't going to be able to take this one. The pick up time was scheduled for two hours before the delivery time of the run I was currently on. Normally this wouldn't be a problem. Having a two day advance warning I would just speed things up a little and see if the receiver would take their load early. Usually they do. Most places I deliver don't care of you're too early, as long as your not late.

I sent my dispatcher a note to inform her that I was still playing catch up and wouldn't be able to make the pick up until the morning after the scheduled appointment time. If the shipper was ok with that, I would gladly accept the run.

She contacted the shipper and they were not at all ok with that. Moving the pick up time back inadvertently moves the delivery time back as well, and the promises they made to the receiver to have the product there by a certain time are broken.
So another driver was put on the run and there I am again sailing straight into the Triangle of Uncertainty with nothing waiting for me when I get there.

Driving like some crazed maniac, I arrived at my receiver for my 9:00 am appointment at 4:30 in the afternoon (I told you I was running behind) and just about out of hours. I really didn't want to run out of hours before getting there, so I skipped the usual breaks and drove straight through. Darn good thing I did too. They close at 4:30! Since I was there, they decided to unload me even though it was quittin' time. You could tell they wanted to go home though. They attacked my trailer with three forklifts and unloaded me in under five minutes. This has to be some kind of new record.

By the time we counted the load and had all the paperwork taken care of, it was past five and, you guessed it - the load planners have left the building. No load planners, no load and almost no hope until Monday. Unless you have something preplanned, which I did, then I didn't, getting booked on a load over the weekend is rare.

I limped over to the nearest truck stop and was pleasantly surprised to find a boat load of parking still available. I sent a message to night dispatch to let them know when I would be getting back some hours just to see if they knew I was out here. Sometimes when you complete a run right at the shift change between day and night dispatch, you fall through the cracks and can sit there until Monday, so I always like to make sure they know I'm out here, without a load, wishing I had one.

Their reply; Sorry. Nothing on the board for now. Check back after 8:00 in the morning. In other words... after they get off. So it was starting to look like a long weekend sitting in a truckstop.

The next morning came and went, and no load. As before I sent a little reminder that I'm out here. The squeaky wheel gets the grease you know. Beep! Oh look a load! That was supposed to pick up yesterday. Hmmm. I wonder why night dispatch couldn't find this last night. Oh well at least I'm not going to sit here all weekend long.

So I'm off. Off to California that is. Just in time for my scheduled home time too. Well almost. I deliver the same day I'm scheduled to be home but, I'll be over 600 miles away so, doesn't look like I'll actually make it home that day.

Well it's time to put Texas and some miles behind me today. As they say, everything is bigger in Texas, including the roads.

Oh and bird number 19 committed suicide today. Guess he couldn't read!

Terminal Time

I don't know where to begin. It's been a long and boring weekend. I awoke Friday morning to the familiar beep of the QualComm summoning my attention. It's kinda like Christmas. You hope it's something you wanted; something thoughtful, something you didn't even know you needed until you open that package. And not a tie or underwear. So what was waiting for me inside that little message box? a nice long hazmat run? Something to one of the four states I've yet to visit? Nope! Underwear...

The message said to take my empty reefer to one of our drop yards on the other side of Dallas and then head to the terminal. No explanation, just head to the terminal. Now they say curiosity killed the cat, but I had to hear this one. I fire off the (they had to be expecting this one) return message consisting of only one word, three little letters. WHY?

I could almost hear the gears grinding from 200 miles away, as if I through a wrench in the machine, it stutters, sputters and grinds to a halt.

Over an hour later they finally manage to get it going again and send a response. Your truck needs to have a pm (preventative maintenance) done. What!?!
I just had a pm done in May. What, did they forget something?

I never really enjoy going to the terminal for maintenance, especially on weekends. They only have two mechanics on duty and the wait can get pretty long. And this weekend was exceptionally long.

SRT acquired a new service manager and apparently he found quite a large maintenance backlog the former service manager was not attending to. Just like a jet aircraft, commercial trucks have to undergo routine inspections every so many thousand miles. Lucky me. My truck had just passed that magic mileage marker.

So to make this backlog go away, the new service manager put out an executive order. Any truck within 500 miles of the terminal, without a load, is to be brought in to have have all necessary work done. Only we (the drivers) are not aware of this, so like the hapless sailor we enter the Bermuda Triangle only to be sucked in and never seen again.

Three days in line before my truck even sees the inside of the shop. When I arrived Friday afternoon, I thought they were kidding when they said It would be Sunday before they would get to my truck. They weren't! It was actually Monday before it got in. Normally it wouldn't take this long, but with nearly a quarter of the fleet in the terminal, the line got to be quite long.

I don't mind spending a day or two in the terminal. They went all out building a place with the drivers in mind. We have free laundry, showers, a TV room with a huge big screen tv and a quiet room with recliners and a table or two if you want to read or surf the web. There is even a kitchen where you can wash dishes from the truck and some vending machines.

I can manage a day or two, but when that day or two rolls into three or four. I start getting restless. I don't know what it is. You can only wash your clothes, dishes, yourself and your truck so many times.

My truck was finally parolled around 9:oo Monday night and by 10:00 I was outta there! I was so excited to have wheels under my butt, I didn't even care where I was going. Now normally I don't like driving at night for so many reasons, but today, I was willing to make an exception. Besides I only had to go about 30 miles to one of our regular shippers and I could spend the night on their dirty, dusty, muddy dirt lot before heading out in the morning. As long as I'm out and about. I'm happy

Waiting On A Load

It wasn't hazmat but, it was miles. The kind I like too. Not too long and just enough time to make it from point a to point b. None of that three days to go 500 miles stuff I had been getting lately.

I arrived in Dallas late last night and spent the night outside my receiver. The Unloading process went off without a hitch this morning and again, off to the nearest T/A to have yet another tire replaced. I seem to been having a run of bad luck with trailer tires lately.

When I received this trailer from a swap earlier in the week it had a nail in one of the tires and I just didn't have enough time to get the needed repairs done due to the limited time on this run. So each morning and at least two more times throughout the day I had to air the tire back up to keep it going until I could get to a shop to have the work done.

As usual, the line was over four hours long. By the time I got in and work was completed, there were no loads to be found. All of our load planners go home at five except for one. Just in case that desperate shipper calls in the middle of the night. So it looks like I'll be spending the night in Denton.

Oh well. Guess I'll have a nice quiet evening. Maybe that hazmat load will come tomorrow...

Ok I'm Ready For Some Work Now

It's been kinda nice taking it slow and easy the past few days. But slow and easy doesn't pay the bills. I'm ready for some work now! A good and long hazmat run would be nice. Hazmat is a pain but, it pays more to compensate for all the hassle you have to go through. And that extra pay adds up quick.

I made it to my delivery two hours early and fully expected to have to wait until my appointment time to even be let in. Much to my surprise they took me right in, assigned me to a dock and started unloading me within 15 minutes of my arrival. I could get used to this.

I sat around all day so I would have enough hours left on my log book to get unloaded and still have enough hours available to go to a truck stop or rest area near by before I turn back into a pumpkin.

We have 14 hours once we start and have to complete all our driving / work within that time. Leave too early, and the clock runs out while you're still being unloaded. Then you're stranded there. Leave too late and miss your appointment. Usually having to wait a whole day or more to get a new one. Been there, done that. (see "The Load That Would Not Die")

Well I'm off to find a place to park for the night. Chances are slim I'll find anything this late but, who knows, I might get lucky.

Deja Vu And Fireflies

I spent today traveling down the exact same freeway I traveled down yesterday, only in the opposite direction. So, I experienced a lot of deja vu today. Kept having that eerie feeling I've been here before.

I couldn't ask for an easier day today. The load I received in yesterday's swap doesn't deliver until Tuesday morning and I only had 675 miles on this run to begin with. That could be done in one day, let alone two and a half. So I'm driving slow and limiting how many hours I use in case I get one of those "pick up tomorrow and has to be there yesterday" runs. Alway a good idea to have a couple of extra hours on the ole log book just in case.

One of the things I like about my job is all the things I get to see, but a little variety wouldn't hurt. I did see a rather nice sun set and moon tonight though. Something I missed being locked up in the windowless radiology department of a hospital.



I'm stopped in a rest area and while walking back from the restrooms, I noticed all these little flourescent green glowing balls of light hovering around the tree line at the edge of the parking area.


Fireflies! I don't know why these little guys facinate me, but they do. So I'm always excited when they come out and let me watch them play. I had a hard time getting them to pose for the photo, so I had to use a timed exposure to actually catch one of them in the act. Click on the pic for a better / bigger view.

Plans Change

I started my day in Marshall, Illinois and fully intended to make it to my destination of Carrollton, Texas by the day's end but, before I could even get started this morning my dispatch contacted me with new plans. Instead of taking the load to Texas, I was instructed to go to Kansas City, Missouri and swap out with a team that had been trying to get home to Dallas. Usually I dread swaps because, I always seem to get there first and slowly watch all of my available hours tick away while I sit and wait for the other half of the swap to arrive. Today it actually worked in my favor for once. The team I was swapping with arrived about three hours before me so, when I arrived the transition went quickly and I turned around and started heading right back where I just came from. Plenty of time on this one too. I wonder what happened. For several weeks now it always seems there is too little time on the run and you really have to hustle to make your appointment. But the past three loads I've been on have had an extra day or two more than what is really needed. Kinda nice to be able to stop and smell the roses for a change.



I saw this cool little bridge in the rest area where I spent the night. When I arrived it was dark and I wondered what the purpose of this bridge was. The ground was sloped enough that water would never build up here and even if it did, I just couldn't see why anyone would put a bridge there. The next morning I climbed out of my truck for a closer inspection and discovered that the Illinois Department of Transportation had relocated it from it's previous location where no one would see it and moved it to the rest area for travelers to enjoy.


Click on photo for larger view

Under A Load

In the previous post I mentioned how my company does not like to have us drive around without a trailer firmly attatched to the tractor. So I was a bit surprised yesterday morning when they told me to drive over 160 miles to pick up an empty trailer. Either that or sit around for a day or more until something closer comes along. Oh no, I'll take it. Besides bobtailing is fun.

You get so used to driving with a trailer, you feel like you're in a race car when you don't have one. You can actually Get up to freeway speed before you get on the freeway!

I'm also not allowed to drive when I go home. My son makes fun of how wide I take turns and how slow I crawl up to red lights and stop signs. My wife makes fun of how I alwas put my hand on the gear selector and step on the imaginary clutch. (our car is an automatic) What can I say? You spend all day every day driving one vehicle, you get accustomed to it. It's hard to turn that off when you drive something different for one day every five or six weeks.

I'm currently working my way from Ohio to Texas where this load delivers. Today I had to have another tire repaired or I should say replaced. There was no repairing this one. Someone had locked up the brakes long enough to grind away the tread until the threads were showing through. Weird though, the other tires on that same axle were just fine. I'll probably spend the rest of my life wondering how they did that...

Aberdeen Will Have To Wait

The load I was under had a tentative appointment for Thursday morning. Tentative because the shipper promised delivery by Thursday but, a firm appointment had not been set at the receiver yet. I was taking my sweet time getting from point a to point b because of all the extra time on this run when my company was finally able to book an appointment with the receiver. Next Tuesday! That's the best you can come up with? Well rather than sit around for an entire week baby sitting a load they directed me to one of our drop yards about 120 miles away. Unfortunately there was nothing available at the drop yard either, so off to the nearest truck stop I go.

I thought I was going to be stranded at the drop yard and wasn't really thrilled with that thought. There were no loads availabe and therfore no trailers. No trailers means you don't go anywhere. Nothing to eat or drink but vending machine food and me with only 20's.

Trucks handle differently without a trailer and are much harder to stop in an emergency. It also costs the company more money to insure because of this. So usually when you drop a trailer and don't have another to pick up, there you sit until you do.

I was quite happy when I put in a request to go over to a truck stop about 20 miles away they actually said yes. I had to send another message just to be sure they didn't read my last message the wrong way and again they said yes. Not wanting to tempt fate, off I went before they realized they made a mistake and changed their minds.

And The Judge Rules In Mom's Favor

One of the more interesting phone calls I receive from the wife or the son is where they're having a disagreement on something and they'll call me to settle it.

Just as in a real courtroom, each one presents their case, and then I make my ruling. And the judge's ruling is always final.

Today's case: Whether or not the front of the car is considered a "side"

Synopses: Wife and son go to the grocery store. While standing at the rear of the vehicle placing the purchases in the back, wife asks son where the cart rack is. Son replies it's on the other side. Wife checks both sides and doesn't see said cart rack and asks for clarification. Son says if we're on the back side of the car the "other" side would be the front.

Son goes first. His argument is the vehicle is basically a rectangle and if you were standing on the narrow side of said rectangle the "other side" would be the other narrow side.

Hmmm... Good opening argument. Lets here from the other side.

Wife's turn. True a car is basically a rectangle but, two of those four sides have commonly accepted names of front and back or rear. Leaving the remaining sides of this rectangle to be called the sides. Also a good argument.

I'll be in my chambers while I make my decision.

Judges ruling: If you were talking with some one about a car accident and they said the whole "side" of the car was crushed in you would not picture the side with the headlights, grille and bumper, you would picture the door.

Ruling in favor of Mom
Case dismissed....

Oversize Load

Gigantic Load

Late last night I pulled into this tiny little truck stop. Well it wasn't really a truck stop. Rather a motel with a large lot out back for truck parking. Which apparently every heavy hauler knows about because, the truck pictured above was one of seven rather large loads parked there. They all stop here so their pilot car drivers have somewhere to sleep. While the truck driver can always just sleep in his truck, not so comfy for the pilot car driver to do the same in their vehicle, so they have all the motels / hotels with a large enough parking area mapped out along their entire route.

When I pulled in last night I was hoping they would still be there in the morning so I could get a picture. Darkness and all the other trucks that were there made taking the picture impossible when I arrived. I couldn't have gotten far enough away to get the whole rig in frame and you wouldn't be able to see much anyway. I had to stand about a football field length away to actually get the whole thing in frame and I don't think the flash would go that far anyway.

To give you an idea how big this thing is, my truck (tractor and trailer) is 65 feet from end to end, and I could have parked next to it twice and still have ten feet left over.

I wish I could of stayed to see them pull out. I would have loved to see that thing turn the corner out of the lot on to the road.

My day went pretty well today. I made decent miles toward my destination and didn't encounter any problems along the way. Wow! I made it through a whole day without having to have anything repaired...

Another Day Another Post, Another Service Call

After reading how happy the wife was to see I'm actually using the mobile broadband she got me for my birthday in the previous post, I figured I'd better write something today.

The team I swapped with apparently doesn't check out their equipment very well. The trailer I received in yesterday's swap, of course, needed repairs. So off to the nearest T/A to have the work done. Now normally I don't let it bother me. These trailers get a lot of miles on them each year and inevitably something is going to break or just plain wear out. However, today it did bother me, because the items in question were obviously that way for a long time and a lot of people have towed that trailer around and not one of them did anything about it. Me being the stickler that I am just cannot pass the buck the way it seems all too easy for other people to do. I always wonder what the next person would think of me if I dumped a problem I should of taken care of on them.


Getting the service done took three hours out of my day which ultimately resulted in me not getting as far as I would have liked. Fortunately this run has one more day on it than I need so I should still get it there in plenty of time.

Ok. Enough negativity for one day. On the other hand I spent the day driving through Wyoming enjoying the beautiful views.

A little more windy than I would prefer, but then again, it's always windy in Wyoming, because there aren't any trees to slow the wind down. Which begs the question. Where do they get all that wood for the animal stop fences and and snow barricades?

They have these eight foot high fences on either side of the freeway with a wood post every six feet, and you know there's gotta be at least another two feet of it in the ground, so figure one ten foot post every six feet equals a lot of trees! Then there's the snow barricades (also made entirely of wood) that must be fifteen feet high and hundreds of feet long, and they're everywhere. Half the cost of that two by four you buy at your local home center is the shipping and it must of cost a pretty penny to have all that wood shipped in. Glad I don't pay taxes in Wyoming!

Woo Hoo!!! I Love Broadband!

Two new entries and I already love that broadband card. It is so fun to see pictures of where hubby is and what he's up to. He kept asking me to write down the stories he told me, but I'm not a very good "ghost writer." Now that I've seen a couple of his entries, I know there's no way I could've told the stories as well.

For example, had I told the story about the two of them playing Halo.... I would've said they spent the whole time in the living room yelling at the tv. I had no idea what they were up to. I didn't know there was a strategy. Maybe because the only time I grabbed a controller and played my son ran over me with the tank. Doesn't sound like much of a team effort to me! Oh and I did spend some time sitting on the side of the tank trying to shoot people, but I never knew which way we were going and I died every time I had to reload my gun. I think I just provide comical relief.

Well I gotta run. It's a big day around our house. It's scrapbook day. hahaha... it's my once a month scrapbook crop and since hubby isn't around to play "slave boy" I have to go load the car myself...unless I can bribe the child to help me....

A Nice Easy Day

A nice easy day today. I got up this morning and calculated the remaining miles on the run to NY and figured it was not even close to possible for a solo driver to complete it on time. I sent a message to my dispatcher letting her know the only way this run could stand a chance would be to swap it off of me and give it to a team. When I didn't receive a reply I figured she was agitated and irritated with me. Hey, I'm only capable of so much. What do you want from me? Little did I know but, at about the exact time I sent my message, a storm had knocked out the power to our terminal and they couldn't receive any messages for over two hours. When they finally got power back, there was such a back log in the system it took them another two hours to process through all the messages. I finally got my reply about five hours into my day, just before I was about to transition onto another freeway and start heading east. They agreed and directed me to continue north into Salt Lake City, Utah to Rendezvous with the team that would take this thing the rest of the way. Bonus for me too. I received a run with roughly the same amount of miles as the one I gave up and this one actually has enough time on it for me to deliver in plenty of time.

On The Road Again

Back on the road after some hometime. The past few days I spent at home with The family where we celebrated a couple of birthdays and had some fun. We went out to dinner, saw Pirates and played a lot of Halo. My son has this fixation on getting through Halo 2 on the ultra uber hard "legendary" level but, discovered it is impossible to do it alone so I was drafted to be his co-combatant. HARD AS HECK, but we had a lot of fun dying constantly. We conjured up this strategy of one of us going in to a battle and killing as many of the baddies as we could while the other would hang back in a safe area so when the first one died he would regenerate back at the safe point next to the other and not all the way back at the last check point. We switched off being the lead and actually made it pretty far into the game. Unfortunately hometime ran out and we weren't able to finish the whole game this time, but have something to look forward to next time I come home.

The coolest thing about this hometime, even though we had to celebrate a little late, was the gift my wife got me for my birthday. I got a USB antenna/broadband card so I can go on the internet from virtually anywhere, anytime. Before I was limited to buying WiFi access and the availability was hit and miss. One of those situations where it's never around when you need it. We added up how much I was spending buying WiFi at $3.99 to $4.99 for 24 hours, and then only using two or three hours. I almost never got to use the remaining time because I would end up running out of hours before I could get to another truck stop that used the same service. We turned off the internet on my phone and a couple of other things and it turned out to be about the same amount to buy the antenna and pay the monthly fee. The bonus is, I have internet when and where I need it, not just at truck stops. Isn't technology grand?

Getting back to life on the road is always a little tough after hometime and today was particularly rough. It all started a couple of days ago when my dispatcher called me at home and asked me if I was ready to go. Ready to go? I just got home! The load I was on last week didn't even deliver until the day after I was scheduled to be home, so by the time I actually got home I was two days into my hometime. So my return date should move back two days also. Well, my dispatcher is new and I guess she didn't notice this and she put me on a load going to New York. I told her I still had three days of hometime coming and I planned on taking every minute of it. So imagine my surprise this morning when I get in my truck and there is that same load, still there, glaring back at me. Now almost impossible to deliver on time. To make matters worse, this load has been sitting in our Long Beach drop yard for four days but, because no one ever took me off of it, the computer system that matches available trucks with loads didn't know it was still there. But wait. It gets better. The trailer this load is in had a bad tire that had to be repaired! Five hours in a truck stop waiting for my turn in the service bay and now we're into the ain't gonna happen end of the spectrum. I can only hope they can find a team that can take this thing off me or there is no hope of it getting there on time. Only time will tell.....

A Sighting

I went to return Josh's tux on Saturday and look what was parked across the street. An SRT truck. Other than hubby's truck, this is only the second time I've seen an SRT truck. Once on my way to Utah and this is number 2.

I don't know if it was a local driver or one just stopping along the way. It was in a walmart/mall parking lot so I suppose he/she could've just been doing some shopping.

Of course the crazy thing is how excited I got just to see one of the trucks. I whipped my camera out of my purse and started taking pictures. I'm sure the other drivers were probably wondering what was so exciting about that intersection.

Hubby is in Phoenix. He just swapped out his hazmat load and is hoping to head to walmart to restock his food supply and pick up prescriptions before he gets assigned another load. Hazmat is good money, but you can't stop to shop when you're hauling it. Hubby tends to get a lot of hazmat loads so he's been trying to make sure he is well stocked so that he's not stuck buying truck stop food all the time.

You know... Phoenix is only 6 hours away... I'm hoping he continues west. I think I could squeeze in a two hour drive if he gets closer to us.

Laredo, TX

Hubby is in or near Laredo, TX today. He's hauling paper today. I just called him to make sure I was remembering it right and he was a bit grumpy. Apparently he's having a hard time finding his delivery. Not fun!

He's been running hard ever since he came back from home time and has already done about 3,000 miles. Of course the downside of that is that he is out of hours. He's already pre-planned for his next load, but needs to find a truck stop and sit for the day tomorrow, so they may have to swap him out. We love it when they keep him moving, but it's hard when you're running so hard that you run out of hours. I'm sure he'll enjoy getting some rest tomorrow.

Been and Gone and #16

Ok, so he made it home and he's gone again. It goes by so fast. I ended up getting sick towards the end of his home time and I'm still battling it, so things are a bit fuzzy in my head. I'm not sure I can write something useful, so I'll just list some highlights instead

He was home for Easter with the family

He got my tire fixed and got all the tires rotated. What? You don't think that's a big deal? I've had a slow leak forever, yet I absolutely could not find the time to go sit at the tire place. I was so relieved that he took care of it for me!

He taught Josh how to ride the motorcycle. Personally I'm not so sure this is a good thing, but it was a fun male bonding thing.

And speaking of male bonding... they went and saw Blades of Glory together. Whew... another thing I'm glad he did, instead of me.

And it was oh so nice to have someone to go buy orange juice when I started getting sick. Of course, it was a bummer that I had no energy and was no fun to be around the last couple of days he was here... but at least my voice is still hoarse and I'm still coughing, so he knows I wasn't faking it.

And now that he's back on the road..... Bird #16 committed suicide..... Now really, do people really hit that many birds, or is he some kind of freak bird magnet?

Home Time

Hubby's in California!! Could it be? Could he finally be coming home? This is the second longest he's been gone and boy am I ready for him to come home. It's been far too long!!

Scheduling home time has probably been our biggest battles on this journey. At first we had no problems. We wanted him to be home for a scout court of honor and he made it home. He was late, but he got there before it was over. Then we had the big family reunion and he made it home and enjoyed the weekend with us. I was starting to think hubby either worked for the perfect company or all the horror stories about home time were great big exaggerations.

Sadly, since then he's been snowed in, shut down for ice storms and for some strange reason, he keeps getting stuck in South Carolina. Now I don't mean stuck as in stuck in the mud or stuck in the snow. I mean he should be traveling west and he's toodling around in Tennesee and South Carolina. I know I shouldn't hold it against that state. I'm sure it's a lovely place to visit, but honestly.... I cringe every time I hear that he's going to South Carolina. I think there must be some kind of magnetic pull that attracts his truck and tries to keep it on the east coast.

For the most part, we know this is just how it works. You have to be flexible and understanding when home time is delayed. The only problem I have with this whole thing, is scheduling doctor appointments. Now that I think about it, maybe that's why it's been such a pain lately. It wasn't just a matter of him being late. Whenever he's late we have to move mountains and change appointments and it just gets annoying. We haven't quite mastered the perfect scheduling technique. If you schedule him home too early and he's on time, then he needs to leave before his appointment. Schedule him closer and he runs late... and he misses his appointment.

And that's why he's home so late this time. He had appointments scheduled for March 27th, but he wasn't going to make it. We either had to put his appointments off for another month and do it all over again, or have him come home a couple of weeks late. But since I'm a silver lining girl.... I do think it worked out pretty nice. He's coming home for Easter, Josh is speaking in church on Sunday and we have a big party at dad's house. I miss him terribly, but I have to admit, it will be nice to have him home for a holiday.

Now That Was A Storm!

It's been a while since I've had time to write. Had a lot of short runs lately and the short ones always seem to take longer than the long ones. The reason being, the loading and unloading takes longer, than the drive from shipper to receiver. A lot of people seem to think (including our load planners) that we just back up to a dock and they instantly load or unload us. Not even close. I think the only reason for an appointment is so that two trucks don't show up and try to occupy the same dock at the same time. What usually happens is you show up on time for your appointment, they assign you a dock to back into, and then you sit there in said dock for four to five hours. The whole time wondering to yourself... now why did I have to be here at 4:00 a.m.?

Two days ago I stopped in Greenville Texas to visit a friend, have dinner, and just get out of the truck for a while. After all I have three and a half days to go 1200 miles in this run, so I didn't feel at all guilty about taking a little time out for a real meal. Dinner was great. I had steak for the first time in weeks. But the real fun didn't begin til after dinner. My friend drove me back to the little truck stop where I had parked, we said our goodbye's and I got my tooth brush out of my truck and went inside to use the restroom and brush my teeth. Sometime during the ten minutes I was inside a thunderstorm rolled in and stopped directly over the building. I came outside to find a pretty good rain already fallling. Wind, thunder, lightning in the distance. In the distance, that is, until I stepped off the curb. B O O M! ! ! Lightning struck so close, I couldn't tell where it hit. Apparently my foot was the catalyst that the lightning needed to strike.

There I am halfway on halfway off the curb, I can't hear, and I really can't see. Have you ever stared directly into the flash when someone takes a picture and you see that little purple spot for a few seconds? Well this was more than a spot. Even my perriferal vision was purple. I'm standing there totally deaf and blind, wondering if I'm still alive. Stunned. It took a few seconds for me to realize that I'm getting totally soaked, so I must still be here because I can feel the rain, even though I cant see it or hear it, I can feel it. Then it comes to me. Well I DON'T want to be here when the next one strikes. So kinda like a blind, deaf, Frankenstein, arms outstretched, I begin walking in the direction of my truck. I wish I had video of this. It would take first place on AFV hands down. All I could think about was getting to the safety of my truck. I don't know why, when the door I just came out of was only three feet behind me, I would walk 50 feet across an open parking lot. With each step my vision would come back a little more. But, trying to find a purple truck when all you can see is purple, kind of like trying to find a polar bear in a snow storm.

With my heart pounding like a scared rabbit I climbed in and waited for my senses to return. Well this is too good to wait til morning, so I call everyone I can think of and tell them all about my fun little experience. But wait, there's more. I turn on the radio only to here there is a tornado warning for Hunt county. I grab my map to see just where Hunt county is in relation to where I am and... Crud! I'm in Hunt county. Great! As if a really near miss with lightning was not enough, now I have to worry about tornados.

The rain bagan to fall in biblical proportions and then the winds came. The whole time I'm in the front seat with my head on a swivel trying to spot the tornado, which fortunately, never materialized. When the rain stopped falling down and just started going sideways at over 70 miles per hour, I was sure there was a tornado over there somewhere, I just couldn't see it in the dark. It was blowing so hard, water was leaking in around the edges of my tightly rolled up window and trickling down the inside of the door. I looked in my mirror and could see my truck leaning over about two feet to the right. I have a load of paper onboard and am quite heavy, so to see it leaning that far did not settle my nerves any.

It packed a lot of punch, but it was a quick mover and only lasted for about 20 minutes or so. The winds subsided, the rain eased and the tornado warnings were reduced to watches, and as far as I could tell, no damage to me or the truck. I'm tired. It's 11:30, the fun seems to be over, so off to bed.

It wasn't til the light of day the next morning that I could see the awsome power this storm packed. Not as much wind damage as you might think. The occasional highway sign partially missing, a few limbs broken on trees and such, but, water everywhere. I passed over a gorge that had to be 80 feet wide and 40 feet deep and saw grass wrapped around the bridge supports 35 feet up! 20 or more cows standing on this little mound about the size of a pitcher's mound and several more walking through chest deep water to join those already on the only dry spot left in their field. Sights like this went on for over 400 miles that day.

I know to some of you who read this, this is nothing. Storms like this happen all the time. But I come from San Diego, Ca. where if two drops of rain fall out of the sky, the local news stations pre-empt regularly scheduled broadcasting to bring you Team Storm Watch Coverage and the guy who has the easiest job in the world, most days, gets to lead the news instead of being burried somewhere in the last two minutes of the newscast. So to me. ...that was a storm.

#14 and #15

Hubby sent me a text message on Saturday. It said "14." Before I could come here to update the suicide bird count, he hit another one. 15.

We never knew that part of his trucking duties would be to thin out the bird population.

He had one particularly deadly week right before he came home for hometime during the summer. While he was home, we drove up to drop our son off at scout camp. On the way home a big black crow just flew into our windshield. It was the strangest thing. He could've flown over, our car is not that big, and yet he just kind of flew into the windshield and then rolled off the top of the car.

I picture that stupid bird everytime hubby sends me the updated number.

Today Show and CPAP rant

Ok, so I just finished the big long post about getting started when you use a CPAP. Since it was so long, I thought I'd save my rant for another post... and since I'm ranting... I'll share my rant about the Today show story the other day

CPAP
Ok so everyone wants drivers to drive safe. There are a ton of regulations out there to keep drivers from driving while tired... so why the big problem with CPAP machines? I think companies that refuse to hire drivers who use them, are creating a bigger problem. They are discouraging drivers from getting the help they need. Instead of getting treatment and getting a good night's rest. They are ignoring the signs and symptoms. How many drivers have you heard snoring in truck stops? Snoring is one of the biggest indications of sleep apnea.

Today Show
You can tell I'm a full on trucker's wife now!! I was so anygry and annoyed by the today show story the other day. The basic story is that someone is considering passing a law that trucks can't drive over 68 mph. Not a big deal for us, hubby's company has them regulated anyway...but that's not the part that annoyed me.

It was the part where they were talking about how many accidents involve a semi. They made it sound like all of the accidents were caused by semi's driving too fast. How many of those accidents were from four wheelers cutting off semi's? How many were from road conditions? I'm sure there are instances where speed was an issue, but not all of them. If you want to prevent accidents, you need to get the four wheelers to stop cutting off trucks, or whip around them......

Ok rants for today are done....

CPAP and Company #1

Little did we know, but one of our biggest hurdles in starting this journey was the fact that hubby uses a cpap machine. Boy did I feel guilty when I realized it might keep him from getting a job!! The only reason he had the testing done and got the machine was because I couldn't stand his snoring anymore!!! I mean all I wanted was a little sleep now and then. Sheesh.

Well hubby went off to orientation with company number one. Truthfully the entire experience with this company was absolutely horrible!! The hotel room was a dive with graffitti inside the drawers and the lampshades and patched holes in the walls. The company treated them like cattle and kept changing their story along the way. It was a prime example of all the bad things you hear about orientation.

Our biggest issue was that hubby passed everything with flying colors. We just had a couple of medical issues to clear up. Issues that he told them about before he went to orientation. He brought the paperwork with him. We were prepared.... Well the doc that did the physical was a real jerk. He asked what setting the cpap was on, was annoyed that hubby didn't have the exact dosage of his medication memorized and was just an overall jerk.

At the end of the week the company said that all they needed was a release from his doctors. Thus began the endless phone calls. I called the doctors, told them what we needed, they faxed it, then the company would say it wasn't good enough. Then they'd tell us what else it had to say. It was absolutely ridiculous. In hindsight, it's pretty clear that they never intended to hire hubby, but instead of telling us that, they made us jump through hoops for two weeks!!

Bottom line - the company wanted the doctors to write releases that stated there were absolutely no restrictions. Doctors don't want to write something like that because they don't want to get sued. So here we were, stuck in the middle. We knew hubby could do the job. His doctor knew he was going to school and pursuing it, but it became a paperwork nightmare.

Company number 1 required hubby to quit his current job to go to orientation. So here we were. He was unemployed, we had no medical benefits and now we weren't sure if he'd get a job anywhere.

We started over at square 1. We called companies. We called safety departments. We asked specific questions about what would be required. We talked to the doctors.

Finally we settled on SRT. Their safety department said that he needed a sleep test every year and that was it. The doctor wrote him a prescription for a sleep test, we paid $500 for the test and had the results faxed to SRT while hubby was in orientation.

That was it. Simple. Easy. They didn't change their story. They didn't make ridiculous requests. Of course he was armed with everything we thought we would possibly need, but they didn't even ask for some of it. Since he travels into Canada, we did have to get his doctor to sign something, listing all of his prescriptions, but that was it. (Most of the prescriptions are for asthma, which was never an issue, just means he takes lots of stuff.)

So here's the scoop.

Yes, you can get a job if you use a CPAP machine.

The prevailing train of thought appears to be that you need to get a sleep test each year.

*We're coming up on his one year anniversary so the doctor has already requested it and hubby will be taking his test in a couple of weeks....Thank goodness he's on my insurance now. We won't be spending the $500 this year.

The Details

All you have to do is check a few trucking forums and you'll see the same questions over and over again. There's a lot to learn when you get started in this industry and everyone has a different opinion. What works for some drivers, doesn't work for other drivers.

Hubby and I are going to try and go through a bit of the details on our experience and then add links to the side of the blog for future visitors.

Please leave us comments and questions. They might help us decide what to write about next.

Sleep is highly overated

The longest day of my trucking career is finally over. Yesterday I finally got rid of the last of the load that just would not die. I returned to the same truck stop I had been at for the last three days and my parking space was still there! I call it my space because even though I had been there for three days I had been in and out several times each time returning to find the same space empty and waiting for me. I wasn't there long this time though. As soon as I back in, the all too familiar beep of the QualComm summoned my attention. One of my old dispatchers asking me if I could repower a load for him. As I'm checking the map against my log book to see if I have enough hours available to cover the distance required, in the time required, I hear another beep... He assigned the load to me! Well thanks for waiting a whole three minutes before you made up my mind for me. This did NOT make me happy. We are under a forced dispatch at SRT and once a load is assigned to you it's almost impossible to get out of it. So rather than make a lot of waves, I basically took one for the team... Let's hope they remember this when I need a favor!

Edited by the wife to add...
Hubby was tired and exhausted, started this post and fell asleep. He re-powered the load and got it there on time. His logbook had plenty of hours because of the "load that would not die" and all the sitting around he did, but he had to drive through the night to get the new load delivered....something he's not overly fond of doing.

He slept all day yesterday and again last night his old dispatcher asked him to repower another load into Florida (from Georgia). So he's on his way, but the dispatcher said he "owes him big time." Hubby's hoping for a nice 3000 mile run. Re-powering loads for another driver means a lot of waiting around and very few miles. He's been hanging out in the East too long, he needs a nice long load to the West coast!

My First Post and The Load That Would Not Die

Well here goes nothing. My first post ever on a blog. Never really had a desire to share my life over the internet, but what the heck. Well, to bring you up to speed on the whole accident thing... The next day after I had made my drop I went to a repair facility my company uses quite regularly, judging on the amount of our trailers they had there, and had the mechanics crawl all over, through and especially under my truck and trailer. There were a quite a few clean spots on the frame, axles, brake chambers and just about everything on the bottom of the truck from where debris had struck and knocked the dirt off, but no real damage. A clean bill of health and off to the next pick up. It wasn't till the next day that I noticed my catwalk was gone. Just gone. I noticed during my pre-trip that morning that something was not right, but I couldn't put my finger on it until later in the day when I picked up a hazmat load. As I was placing one of the placards in the holder on the front of the trailer I went to set the rest of them down on the catwalk to free up my hands, when it suddenly hit me. That bent, twisted piece of metal that slightly resembled a cat walk; the one I had to step over on my way to rescue my fellow trucker, was MY catwalk. It probably got knocked out by something I ran over, but at the time, with all the other debris all over the place, I never even considered it could be from my truck! Oh well just have to be very careful when I climb up to check the reefer unit until I can get it replaced.

Onto today. Today's fiasco... Yesterday I had a delivery to one of the world's largest retail chain distribution centers. Despite my best efforts, I arrived 53 minutes late. Normally this wouldn't be a problem as it is their policy that you may arrive up to one hour before or after your scheduled appointment time. With seven minutes to spare in that precious window, I thought I made it. WRONG! I check in at the guard shack only to be told they won't accept me. Quoting their policy back to the guard didn't persuade him a bit either. But, being the nice guy that he was, he placed a call to the central receiving office on speaker phone so I could here them say it for my self.

Guard: "Can you still take a two thirty?"

C.R. clerk " No. He's too late. He'll have to come back tomorrow."

Guard hangs up, now talking to me, "See I told ya."

Yeah so much for that one hour policy! Oh well. Guess you can't argue with the people who make the rules. If you do, and they see you're right, they'll just change them to suit their needs, not yours. So I headed back to the truck stop a few miles away to wait it out. I notified my company and they're not the least bit surprised. Turns out this particular D.C. has a reputation of this so just make sure I'm at least half an hour early tomorrow. I tell them no problem. I'm only ten miles or so away. I'll be there with bells on. So today I leave the truck stop 45 minutes before my appointment and arrive at the D.C. exactly half an hour early as promised. I check in again...

Me to guard dripping with sarcasm I'll soon regret "Hope I'm not too early. I have a two fifteen" handing my paperwork to the guard who takes it, looks it over, types in my appointment number, and says "you're not supposed to be here til tomorrow." Now it's his turn with the sarcasm. "Yeah I guess that's too early" as he turns the monitor around for me to see for my self... CRUD!!! He's not messing with me. It really does say tomorrow. Oh well. guess I'll try this again tomorrow. Back to the truck stop to lick my wounds from that sarcasm sword. Which, by the way, has a double edge and if your not careful when you use it, it will cut you, not your opponent.